THE HAT SQUAD: JACK NARZ

So many people connected to Toobworld have passed away over the last few days, and I know if I don't give them their proper dues now, I'll probably be overwhelmed as time goes by......

Game show host and announcer Jack Narz died at the age of 85, after suffering a couple of massive strokes in the last month. He's probably best known for hosting 'Dotto' at the time of the big quiz show scandal (I think 'Dotto' was the first show to be outed, but his career was not damaged by the association.)

Narz was also the announcer for 'Space Patrol' and for the first episode of 'The Adventures Of Superman', as well as for TV Crossover Hall of Famer Betty White's sitcom from the early 1950s, 'Time For Elizabeth'.

Technically, many of these shows are not exactly part of Toobworld. But they may have been mentioned in various shows of the era as TV characters would watch many of the same game shows that we do here in the Trueniverse. So Jack Narz would still be counted among Toobworld's League of Themselves.

For a better and personal tribute to Jack Narz, visit Mark Evanier's "News From ME". Click here to go directly to the story, but his site is also at home to the left.....

"The Farmer's Daughter" (1 episode, 1966)

- My Papa, the Politican (1966) TV episode

"The Spike Jones Show"

"Life with Elizabeth"

"Adventures of Superman"

"Space Patrol"

"Password Plus"

"Card Sharks"

"Beat the Clock"

"Tattletales"

"Now You See It"

"Match Game 73"

"Concentration"

"The Movie Game"

"I'll Bet"

"Seven Keys"

"Video Village"

"Dotto"

"The Price Is Right"

"The Bob Crosby Show"

"Place the Face"

"Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge"

BCnU.....

Toby O'B

THE HAT SQUAD: NEAL HEFTI

Hollywood composer Neal Hefti has died at the age of 85. He's best known for the Toobworld themes for 'The Odd Couple' and 'Batman'; but he was also the musical director for 'The Fred Astaire Show' (1968) and the orchestra leader on 'The Kate Smith Show' (1960).

He also composed the theme for the TV series version of 'Barefoot In The Park' and for the TV movies "Conspiracy of Terror" and "The 500 Pound Jerk".

BCnU.....
Toby O'B

THE HAT SQUAD: EILEEN HERLIE

Actress Eileen Herlie has passed away at the age of 90 in Manhattan. She was perhaps best known to TV viewers as Myrtle Fargate, the matronly role she played on 'All My Children' for 32 years. But she also played Queen Gertrude in Laurence Olivier's movie version of 'Hamlet" and appeared often on Broadway and on the London Stage.

Sadly, it took Ms. Herlie's death for me to find out that she is eligible for membership in the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame as Myrtle Fargate. The character appeared in an episode of 'One Life To Live' in 2000, and for an unknown period of time on 'Loving' as well. I think she'll find herself welcomed into the ranks during next year's weekly 10th anniversary celebration for the Hall of Fame.
As theater and 'All My Children' so occupied her time, her list of Toobworld characters are few. But as you'll see, there are two heavyweights in there.....

"All My Children" .... Myrtle Lum Fargate

"One Life to Live" .... Myrtle Fargate

"Loving".... Myrtle Lum Fargate

Lemonade (1975) (TV)

The Woman I Love (1972) (TV) .... Queen Mary

"BBC Sunday Night Theatre" .... Regina Giddens
- The Little Foxes (1951)

As Red Skelton would have said, May God Bless......

BCnU.....
Toby O'B

TODAY'S TWD: "TREK" PREQUEL PREVIEW

About five sites around the internet have been given access to a different picture each for the next 'Star Trek' movie (about the younger versions of the original crew), which is due out May of 2009.

I thought the one given to UGO.com looked the best:
From left to right: Anton Yelchin as Chekov, Chris Pike as James T. Kirk, Simon Pegg as Lt. Montgomery Scott, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, John Cho as Sulu and Zoe Saldana as Uhura. (I think they may all be checking out Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock.)

But if you want to see the other pics available, click here for a round-up.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

PUTTING A SHEEN ON THE TVXOHOF

Charlie Sheen qualified for membership in the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame Monday night. He made a cameo appearance as himself in "The Griffin Equivalency", the latest episode for 'The Big Bang Theory'.

Add to this his cameo (along with Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones) in an episode of 'CSI' last year entitled "Two And A Half Murders", and his work in "Drew Live II", an episode of 'The Drew Carey Show', and he meets the requirements for induction into the Hall.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

THE "IT" ZONKS

When Morris Moss, better known just as Moss, made a video for himself to use at an online dating service, he taped it while in his mother's bathroom. He explained his reason as being his mother's fascination with 'Diagnosis Murder', which she had the volume cranked up.

No mention of Dick Van Dyke or his character of Dr. Mark Sloan (a TV Crossover Hall of Fame member). So it doesn't have to be the actual show that we know from the Trueniverse. And with such a generic title, 'Diagnosis Murder' doesn't even have to be an American TV production. It could have been home-grown in the United Kingdom. Perhaps it's a show that deals with murder cases like all of those documentaries you see on Tru-TV.

Definitely not a Zonk!

'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' isn't a Zonk either. It exists in the real world and Toobworld as well. Most game shows do. And if Chris Tarrant has appeared as himself in other fictional settings, then his membership in the League of Themselves can link those shows to 'The IT Crowd'.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

TODAY'S TWD: SCHALLERT IN TOON-TOWN

Continuing with my salute to the contributions William Schallert made to Toobworld, today we're taking a look at those characters he contributed to the Tooniverse, the dimension of animated television.

"What's New, Scooby-Doo?"

- Farmed and Dangerous (2005) (voice) .... Farmer P./Neville Popenbacher

- Big Appetite in Little Tokyo (2003) TV episode .... Professor Pomfrit

"The Zeta Project" .... Judge Linden

- The River Rising (2002)
[pictured]

"The Angry Beavers" .... Dr. Cowtiki
- The Day the Earth Got Really Screwed Up (1998)

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures (1990, Animated Series) (additional voices)

David and Goliath (1986) (V) (voice)

Galtar and the Golden Lance (1985, Animated Series) (additional voices)

"Smurfs" (1981) TV series .... Additional Voices (unknown episodes)

Of those, two are of particular interest. Professor Pomfritt of the Scooby adventure "Big Appetite In Little Tokyo" is most likely the cartoon version of Leander Pomfritt from 'The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis'. But his personality is different in the Tooniverse; he's an agent for evil. And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!

And then of course, there's Milton the Toaster. Milton is either a dimensional crossover from the Tooniverse, like Superman (the American Express ads), Daffy Duck ('The Drew Carey Show') or Cap'n Crunch, or he's a spirit who's animated a live-action toaster.
At least in the 1975 frame grab here of Milton talking to a little girl, it looks like Milton is a real toaster. But in later ads, and in the print advertising for Kellog's, Milton took on a more toonish look.

Either way, I don't think he's a native of the main Toobworld....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

HOPPED UP ON BLIPVERT BUNNIES

It looks like the Energizer Bunny has some competition over in France, from a VERY athletic toy rabbit - courtesy of Duracell. I think the point of the commercial, without mentioning or showing the Energizer rabbit, is that the old model is an antique, and slow, and really not good for anything save for banging his drum. Slowly. (The Energizer Bunny is seen here from his first appearance in 1989.)

Energizer's battery bunny makes a cameo appearance in my Toobworld novel. (It's not named as such, of course; wouldn't want to get sued!) But I think this little guy could fit right in to the Toobworld concept as is. A cuddly cybernetic spy, or a toy thief, he'd also be perfect for that type of monster on 'Doctor Who' that might look cute, but turns out to be deadly.

Remember the Adipose babies? Or even those little rock-men in the movie "Galaxy Quest".....

BCnU!
Toby O'B

VIEW ALL ABOUT IT

In one of my posts yesterday, I combined a look at the New York Chronicle as the link between 'Heroes' and 'The Patty Duke Show' with my splainin as to why 'Heroes' no longer takes place in the main Toobworld.

But now I think I can find an actual way to meld them together.

In the 'Heroes' episode "Truth & Consequences", Alejandro saw the Chronicle's story about Gabriel Gray (whom we know better as Syler) having murdered his mother.

Take a closer look at the photo in the lower right-hand corner of the front page. It's a picture from a video on pause!

In the 'Journeyman' episode "The Hanged Man", we saw that Dan's alteration of the Past created a Present in which technology was so advanced that newspapers were more like flexible videos - vidpapers. This looks to be similar: set in the same time period, but not at the same level of technological advancement.

As I postulated earlier, when Ando and Hiro returned from their trip into the Future, I think they jumped a time-stream or two and wound up in a different version of their own reality. But it's one with such small and subtle differences that they haven't noticed that it's not their original Earth. In fact, if they have noticed this new process of embedding videos into newspapers, it in such an early stage of development that they've probably accepted that they're witnessing the invention at the get-go.

As for what happened to the Ando and Hiro native to that dimension, I think it's like that 'Mirror, Mirror' episode of 'Star Trek' - as they "slid" into the new dimension, their counterparts ended up in theirs. Or it could be a dimensional leap on a cosmic scale; every variation on Hiro and Ando leaped at the same time and and returned to a different dimension at the same time so that the cosmic balance was maintained.

Say! These are good shrooms!

BCnU!
Toby O'B

PS:
By the way, even as an early example of vidpaper, that's a poorly designed front page for the paper!

TODAY'S TWD: CELEBRATING WILLIAM SCHALLERT

Because of that previous piece about the New York Chronicle, and because he's been in the last two episodes of 'True Blood' as the Mayor of Bon Temps, Louisiana, I thought it might be nice to pay tribute to William Schallert.

TV Land - back when they really cared about our Television heritage - used to run a bumper celebrating Schallert as the hardest working man in television. And it's nice to tip my hat to the man's contributions to Toobworld before it becomes necessary with a Hat Squad Tribute.

I compiled the list of his TV credits from the IMDb.com. After removing all of the theatrically released movies, there were about 250 credits to his name. And that's just for the main show itself, not counting the multiple episodes he appeared in. For 'The Patty Duke Show' alone, there were nearly ninety episodes; another twenty for 'The Torkelsons' and eleven turns as Nancy Drew's Dad. And then there are his recurring roles in shows like 'The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis' and 'Get Smart'. (Admiral Harold Harmon Hargrade is my favorite of his many roles.) Many long-running shows can count at least two different roles created by William Schallert. For 'Gunsmoke' alone, he played seven distinct characters.

If I tried to post his complete resume, of just the TV credits alone, I'd have to split the post up to fit it all. That hasn't happened since I ran the Hat Squad tribute for Lloyd Bochner. So instead, I'm going to post some pictures to show the range of roles he played throughout the Toobworld timeline.....

Martin Lane
'The Patty Duke Show' and the reunion movie "Still Rockin' Brooklyn Heights"
'The Nancy Drew Mysteries', 'The Torkelsons',
and Milton the Toaster for Kellog's Pop-Tarts
'Bewitched' and 'Lou Grant'
'The Andy Griffith Show' and 'Leave It To Beaver'
(a role he reprised in the sequel, 'Still The Beaver')
'Gunsmoke', 'Dr. Kildare', 'Philbert'
Three different characters from 'The Rifleman'Frank Harper, 'The Wild, Wild West'
(Harper could have been the ancestor to Warden Harper in an episode of 'Stoney Burke')
'Star Trek', 'True Blood', 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'

I'll have to do a bit more research, but I think Martin Lane could end up being inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame. But that depends on how his episode of 'Roseanne' played out. It could have been part of that disastrous final season which was all part of a novel Roseanne Conner had been writing.

So here's to you, William Schallert! Thanks for so enriching the world of Toob!

BCnU!
Toby O'B